Our life is a bit different here, but Dutch people and Dutch children are also becoming heavier.

There is still lots of bike riding as a means of transportation.

We have three mcDonald's in the town I live in. One burger king and we just heard last week we will be getting a KFC.

It does not matter, we can't afford to eat there often. If you go to Amsterdam it is just full of the fast food places.

I was lucky enough to be home when the children were small. Now that I work it is a struggle to put fresh healthy meals on the table each night, but we do. (most nights) Last night we had hamburgers with fried onions on french bread. No fries. Tonight lasagna with a green salad.

I love my crock pot.

At the school I work at the children are not allowed to bring cookies or candy to eat. Chips are considered a treat and not a lunch ingredient.

When a child has a birthday they are encouraged to bring a healthy treat if possible (fruit kabobs, etc). the next choice would be chips rather than candy. It does not always work, of course.

When I was a girl we had school lunches, period. No choice. It was always a balanced meal. Why don't they go back to that?

This doeesn't surprise me much, watching my sibs and freinds with their kids, and I think they're better parents than most. Still, it has become unfashionable to insist that your kids sit at the table and at least down a spoonful of something nutritious. The pre-schoolers I watch run around with a bottle or sippy cup of apple juice and a favorite snack (cheerios or goldfish or ...) all day. It really doesn't matter how nutritious it is, the fact is that they never know the feeling of "I'm hungry" before they eat. AS they get older, it only gets worse. I've seen teenage girls insist they are vegetarians; which seems somehow to give them license to live on fast food french fries and doritos. When I've asked my friends about this, their response has inevitably been, "Well, they're going to eat that crap at their friends' house, so why bother here?" If I had kids, I'd find this scary. As it is I'll be long gone when this generation hits the age where their nutritional habits catch up with them, social security is gone, and our already sorry health care system falls through completely. Onset Diabetes (I'm unsure of the technical name) is starting to onset early, instead of being a disease of the older generation. It's pretty pitiful. I'm overweight, I admit it, but wasn't as a child, and every pound was put on with great, real, food.

..which is why I'm very proud to say my kids are healthy eaters. This was learned from my family growing up. We always have a nutritious meal, and only 2-3 desserts/week. My kids are fine with it, as it's the only way they know. Yes, we do fast food, but about 2x/month. A lot of kids won't eat veggies, because they aren't offered. Mine love them!

Here's one small light at the end of the tunnel:

A bill was passed, which was instated in January 2004 in the state of California. No public schools may sell unhealthy, sugar-filled foods from 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the school day until 30 minutes after the last bell rings. Fortunately, the high schools lost their soda machines, but sadly, bake sales became a thing of the past. All in all, it's good......in theory.
You should see the list of "nutritious" foods! Egad! Somehow Pop-Tarts made it onto the list of "healthy"! Granted, candy bars are out, but.......

I also have another theory about why obesity is becoming more prevalent with kids. Like Alix, I do believe that we have a sedentary culture, (it's ironic that I say that as I sit here in front of the computer.

But I also think that getting your kids to exercise is a lot harder than it used to be. When I was kid we ran around playing Kick-The-Can, and climbing trees before dinner. These days, depending on where you live, you can't let your kids go out unsupervised, for fear of kidnapping, assault, etc.

A major road near where we live goes directly to my old high school. Between 8:30am and 9 every weekday morning there is a huge traffic jam of parents taking their kids to school. Same thing at the elementary school. When I was kid, we walked 3.5 kms to school, because, it seemed safe in those days to do so. Now, I don't know anyone who lets school-age kids walk to school, or play unsupervised. I think this is definitely contributing to unhealthy weight gain in kids. Tree climbing(in cities, at least), has been replaced by TV and Internet. These changes aren't bad, but I guess as parents we need to make concentrated efforts to go out with our kids and make them run around! :-)

When my daughter was very young, she only liked certain foods, which I'm certain is not uncommon. For the longest time she was hooked on macaroni and cheese from a box. Now that she is 13, she understands what foods are good and bad for her. She still loves mac and cheese but we make our own version, which does not contain all the sodium that the box version does, and we add corn to ours. Basically as kids get older most realize what foods are good and healthy.

I used to let my daughter have school lunches, but have you ever noticed how unhealthy school lunches are? Burgers, fries, chicken nuggets that are fried in batter, hot dog, etc. She now takes lunch from home everyday and likes salad alot. She also likes cole slaw for her lunch. She brings a pepsi 1 and a low carb snack, and sometimes (against my wishes) she eats a slim fast meal bar for lunch. I dont consider slim fast bars as food.

She exercises alot more that she used to and is active in various sports at school. Sure she likes to watch tv, and go on her computer, but thats ok with me as long as she is eating healthy, exercising, and keeping up her grades at school, which she is.

I remember our sitting down at the table eating lots of veggies. I have fruit in the house all the time. My kids are 20 (still lives at home), 22 (visits over Christmas and lives 200 mi. away), and 25 (lives with his girlfriend 8 mi. away). My youngest touches very few vegetables (he used to LOVE my homemade split pea soup) and likes fast food, eating it probably 6 days a week. My oldest eats pizza and/or fast food more days than not. My daughter is obese. Figure this out.